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The Granny
Peace Brigade Philadelphia is:
a
group of activists, including grandmothers and others, who are
dedicated to ending war. On June 28, 2006, 11 of us went to the
Military Recruitment Center in Philadelphia to "enlist" in the United
States military, so that our grandchildren would not kill or be
killed in Iraq. When we refused to leave without enlisting, we
were arrested and charged with "Defiant Trespass". On December 1, 2006,
Judge Deborah Griffin dismissed the charges against us, affirming
the legality of our non-violent protest. We continue to meet together
and resist war-making in Iraq and elsewhere.
The
Granny Peace Brigade Philadelphia meets:
WHEN: Alternate
Thursdays
NEXT MEETING: July 3 10 AM - noon Library at 19th and Locust St. (Meeting Room is downstairs) ALL ARE WELCOME! Click here to Contact Us or Make a
Contribution.
Call your Senator and Representative in Congress. Use the FREE phone number:
1-800-828-0498
At the moment, we want our reps to vote NO on HR 5507 (another funding bill for the war). UPCOMING EVENTS Saturday, June 28, 2008: The Vincent Woodson Foudation is hosting an event at Vernon Park. This is NOT a Granny event, but Grannies will be staffing a table there. We will walk around and talk to people, too, and hand them palm cards worded to deal with the anti-violence concept. Helen will leave the Granny Banner at the front desk of her apartment. Gert Copperman will pick it up. Contact: Jean Haskell at jeanhaskell@comcast.net or call her at (215) 870-3886. Tuesday, July 1, 2008: Jeremy Schahill will speak at the Free Library at 7 p.m. about Blackwater and other private military contractors. Grannies will leaflet (not in protest of Jeremy, who we support, but to educate) outside the Free Library and then attend the talk. This IS a Granny event. Contact: who? Tuesday, July 1, 2008: United for Peace and Justice, Delaware Valley Network, Planning Meeting, AFSCME building at 1606 Walnut St., 2nd Floor (if AFSCME needs the space at the last minute, the back-up space is 4609 Spruce St.), 6:30 to 9:00 p.m. This is a meeting to plan a big demo to take place Saturday, October 4, 2008. This is NOT a Granny event, but Granny Nina is involved. Contact her at huizinga.nina@yahoo.com or call her at (215) 528-6130. Thursday, July 3, 2008: Granny Meeting, Library at 19th and Locust St. (Meeting Room is downstairs), 10:00 a.m. to Noon. Ruth Balter is the facilitator. Please give her your agenda items at nalydiv@vzavenue.net or call her at (215) 545-4486. Saturday, July 12, 2008: Granny Carriage Demo. We will gather and sing at Noon at 5th and Chestnut St., ride in horse-drawn carriages from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. We will wear our Granny hats, T-shirts, and long skirts and hold signs against the Iraq war. We will sing again once we get off the carriages. All along the route Grannies will hand out leaflets against the war. Contact: Ann Agee at (215) 732-8207 or (215) 983-1170. Thursday, July 17, 2008: Granny Meeting, 10 to Noon, location to be decided. Thursday, July 24, 2008: Grannies leaflet at the Mann Music Center before the performance. There are special SEPTA buses that leave from Rittenhouse Square and go to the Mann Music Center. They line up outside the entrance to the Center after the concert for the return trip. Stay tuned for more information about the bus schedule. Contact: Paula Paul at pauladance@aol.com or call her at (215) 438-9319 or (267) 253-77849. Tuesday, August 5, 2008: Nancy Pelosi will speak at the Free Library at Logan Circle, 7 p.m. Grannies will demonstrate and leaflet outside at 6:30 p.m. and, then, go inside to hear Nancy and, maybe, get a chance to ask questions. Rita Addessa suggests we buy a block of tickets (cost something like $20 each). Afterwards, there will be a book signing. Grannies who plan to go are: Paula Paul, Sylvia Rosenfeld, Goldie Petkov, and Helen Evelev. Contact: Helen Evelev at helenevelev@aol.com or call her at (215) 351-2225. Saturday, July 12, 2008: Granny Carriage Demo, meet at 5th and Chestnut St. where horse carriages line up. We will gather at 12:30 p.m. We will rent three carriages and ride them for an hour from 1 to 2 p.m. Songs, Signs, Banners, Palm Cards to pass out, Parasols with slogans on them, Hats, Long Skirts, and, of course, Horses and Carriages. Needless to say, this IS a Granny Event. Do come! Rain Date: Sunday, July 13, 2008. Contact: Ann Agee at: (215) 732-8207, or cell: (215) 983-1170. Saturday, March 29, 2008: New Jerusalem and Granny Peace Brigade Anti-War Rally and BBQ   AMERICAN GRANNIES
EXPRESS OUTRAGE AFTER 5 YEARS OF WAR;
With knitting needles, with dirty linen
clotheslines, many with songs, and some with acts of civil
disobedience, grandmother groups across the United States in at least
20 cities expressed their frustration, their deep rage at the continued
occupation of Iraq. This was the granny way of commemorating the
end of five years since the bombing of Iraq on March 19, 2003.Grandmothers in 20 Cities Protest Occupation; Some Get Arrested The coordinated granny actions, initiated by the Granny Peace Brigade in New York City, were the latest ones demonstrating once again that the grandmothers of America have been in the forefront of the peace movement since Day One of the U.S. catastrophic invasion of a sovereign nation. Perhaps the most noteworthy of the protests was that carried out in Atlanta, Georgia, on March 17, where 10 members of the Atlanta Grandmothers for Peace were arrested and jailed for 10 hours when they attempted to enlist in the military at a recruiting center. Said Doris Benit, 80, one of the arrestees: "We believe our young people were sent to Iraq on a web of lies and deceit. We believe they are being used as cannon fodder in an illegal and unjustified war against a nation which posed no threat to us." Very whimsical Knit-Ins for Peace were held in New York City, Washington DC, Pittsburgh PA, and other cities. They were outdoor events which involved grandmothers knitting stump socks for amputee veterans. The New York Granny Peace Brigade valiantly knit in the rain for about two hours outside the Times Square recruiting center where they had been arrested and carted off to jail in 2005 for attempting to enlist, while calling out the numbers of dead and wounded from each state. The oldest granny, and perhaps the most vociferously protesting one there, was 93-year-old Marie Runyon. Part of the New York group, along with some members of the Granny Peace Brigade Philadelphia and Maryland women, went to Washington, where they knit in rocking chairs outside the Veterans Administration, and when they had completed knitting a number of the stump covers, had a Veteran for Peace color guard hand them over to a VA official. Fifteen Pittsburgh grannies, the oldest of whom is 84, participated in their Knit-In at a recruiting station, as pictured below.  Another creative demonstration was that in Philadelphia, where the grannies hung a laundry line at City Hall and hung the dirty linen of the Bush administration on it -- each item of clothing inscribed with a plea to correct the many wrongs of the Government. The Philly grannies, like most of the other granny groups, sang anti-war songs during their protests.  Some of the dirty linen
hung at City Hall in Philadelphia PA March
19, 2008.
(photo by Cathy Clemens) In Orange County, NY, a group of grandmas met with State University students on campus in Middletown, and urged them to participate in the anti-war movement. In spite of pouring rain, there was a good turnout and the students were surprisingly receptive. The older women had a sense that young people are beginning to take more action in the struggle to end the war. 150 people stood on four corners in Sarasota, Florida. Eight stalwart grandmothers in Boston held a vigil on Boston Common in a drenching downpour. Other groups that participated were in Spokane; Minneapolis; Detroit; Albany NY; Monkato MN; San Francisco; Montpelier VT; San Jose CA; Bloomington IND; Portland, Maine; St. Augustine FL, and Denver.  (Raging Grannies in Tucson AZ
hold Knit-In for Peace on March 19, 2008)
Amazingly, a lot of the granny protests got wide media coverage in
their areas. This represents a kind of breakthrough, as it has
been difficult to get publicity for the many grandmother anti-war
activities conducted over the last five years since the war was
launched..At least two grandmothers got arrested when a group of protesters prevented entrance to the IRS in Washington DC -- Beverly Rice of the New York Granny Peace Brigade and Sue Gracey of the Boston Raging Grannies. When grandmothers are willing to risk arrest and jail, as so many of us old ladies do on a regular basis these days, you know this war is despised and must be ended. We grannies are not getting any younger and our energy is not what it was in our earlier days -- but we keep on keeping on knowing we will not be here forever and earnestly hoping that we are inspiring other and younger people to carry on our urgent quest when we no longer can. January 1 2008 Grannies Take Part in Philadelphia Mummers Parade  ________________________________________________________________________________
 Grannies Participate in October 27 National Mobilization to End the War in Iraq
 ____________________________________________________________________________ The New York Granny Chicks,
singing "Grannies, Let's Unite".
Click: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXVAsHtitW0 LOVE, GRANDMA: ACTIVISTS WRITE Grandmothers Against the War
announce the publication of LOVE GRANDMA: ACTIVISTS WRITE, a collection
of letters and poetry for grandchildren of all ages by women and men
committed to a better, peaceful world.
By david swanson NY Granny, Joan Wile has published a book called "Grandmothers Against the War: Getting Off Our Fannies and Standing Up for Peace." It is very much an account of ordinary people doing extraordinary things. ... Democrats.com blogs - http://www.democrats.com/blog In Phila, call for info: Marlena Santoyo 515 Glen Echo Road Philadelphia, PA 19119 Tel. (215)-247-4385 marlsan@cavtel.net _________________________________________________________________________________ From
Congressman Dennis Kucinich: Congressional
Leaders Continue To Play The War Funding Game While Americans In Iraq
Continue To Die
Veterans Break Silence on US War
Crimes: http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/02/29/7368/
Price Tag for Iraq, Afghan Wars: Three Trillion Dollars: http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/02/28/7342/ Find out more about counter-recruitment actions, click here: http://codepink4peace.org/section.php?id=48 April 2, 1917- First elected woman takes seat in U.S. Congress * VEWG Web page*: http://www.unitedforpeace.org/peacevote2008
Check this page regularly for articles, commentaries, ideas for creative bird dogging, talking points for letters to the editor and sample op-eds for the upcoming primaries, caucuses and general elections. * Presidential Voter Guide: One way to generate an educated peace vote is by using the UFPJ voters guide. You can download the guide in Spanish and English from: http://www.unitedforpeace.org/index.php and add your local contact information. |